Ensign John Browne circa 1620-1662

He was the son of John Browne Sr. of Salem, Taunton, and Rehoboth and Dorothy Beauchamp. He married twice - first to Anne Dennis (or Martha Thompson), with whom he had four children: John, Lydia, Hannah/Annah, and Joseph. Anne died before 1659 when he married Lydia Buckland, with whom he had ONE child.

Ensign John, Jr., born in England, died last of March, 1662; settled in Rehoboth and had these children:

Leftover and confusing material

Ensign John Browne, born in England, died last of March, 1662;married Anne Dennis and Lydia Buckland

Major James, of Swansey, born in England 1623, died 1710; married Lydia Howland

Mary, born in England, married, July 6, 1636, Captain Thomas Willett, of Plymouth, the first English mayor of New York city, who was twice elected to that office.

William, resided in Salem, not mentioned in will and not proved to be son of John Browne (I).

Major James Brown, son of John Browne Sr, born in England in 1623, was in Taunton in 1643 with his father, the assistant, and went with him to Swansea, Massachusetts. He was said to be a Baptist and preacher. He was chosen an assistant in 1665. He married Lydia Howland, daughter of John Howland, who came over in the "Mayflower," and all his descendants are likewise descended from Mayflower ancestry. He died October 29, 1710, aged eighty-seven years. The children of Major James Browne and Lydia Howland were: Their children were:

James, born at Rehoboth, Massachusetts, May 4,' 1655, died at Barrington, Rhode Island, 1725;

Dorothy, born at Swansey, Massachusetts, August 29, 1666, married —;— Kent;

Jabez, born July 9, 1668, at Swansey, Massachusetts.

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Called a Scotsman, he emigrated with his parents at 1 year old on the ship Lyon. [Comment: There was another John Browne called "the Scotchman". The material below about the marriage to Esther Makepeace is for the John Browne born 1631 and died 1697, where Ensign John Browne was born circa 1620 and died 1662.]

-------------------- NOT Ensign John Browne (1620-1662)!!!

John Brown was born in England in 1631, came to Boston, 1632, and lived in Cambridge, Marlborough, 1666; Falmouth, 1678; and later in Watertown, Massachusetts. He married, April 24, 1655, Esther Makepeace, who was born in England, daughter of Thomas Makepeace. John Brown was called a Scotchman. His will, dated November 20, 1697, mentions his wife Esther, his children John, Thomas, Daniel, Joseph, Deborah, wife of Jeremiah Meachem, and sons-in-law JOHN GUSTIN, John Adams, Thomas Darby and John Hartshorne. He died in Watertown, about 1697.'

'John Browne of Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, born 1631, and married Esther Makepeace April 24, 1655, Son of John Browne, born 1601, wife Dorothy, who came to American in 1632, in the ship "Lion" and settled at Watertown.'

from "Immigrant Ancestors," Virkus, p. 16:

'John Browne, called a Scotsman, born 1631 at Hawkedon, Eng., emigrated to MA from ENG in Sept. 1631 (1yr. old child) with his parents aboard the ship 'Lyon,' died 20 Nov. 1697 at Watertown, MA...'

from NEGHR, Vol. II, 1857, Early Records of Boston Mass., p. 200: "John Browne was married to Esther Makepeace, the daughter of Thomas Makepeace of Boston... by Capt. Hum. Atharton 24 May, 1655...";

'Descendants of the Tolethorpe Browne family from Suffolk were among the early settlers arriving aboard Winthrop's Fleet in 1630 to settle the Massachusetts Bay Colony, now Boston.

'Robert Browne's cousin from Swan Hall in Suffolk, Abraham Browne, and his older brother, Richard, were aboard. Their nephew John, and his wife Dorothy, arrived with their first child, one year-old John, aboard the "Lion." Abraham had helped to found Watertown, Massachusetts, where his name is on a monument to the early pioneers. His cousin, Edward, the son of Robert Towne of Tolethorpe, was one of the twenty gentlemen founders of Maryland under Lord Baltimore.

'Richard, ruling elder of the Watertown Church, led a protest of "no taxation without representation" against the Colony's own rulers. It was echoed by the revolutionary colonists of Massachusetts in the next century.

'About this time, the American branch of the family dropped the final letter in the family name and it became simple "Brown."

'The activities of later members of the family are remembered. Solomon Brown of Lexington, Massachusetts fired the first shot that drew British blood on the Lexington Green in the skirmish starting the revolution which led to independence from the British crown. His first cousin, John Brown of Lexington, was one of the six "Minute Men" killed on the green by the British on the morning of April 19, 1775. His name appears there on the war's first monument.

'Solomon's brother, artillery officer, Captain Oliver Brown, led the pulling down of the equestrian statue of George III the next year in New York City...'

-------------------- Referred to as John Brown, Jr. He removed from Taunton, MA following his father and brother James in 1647 and was of Rehoboth and Swansea.